Page 38 - Murder on the Dirigible

Murder on the Dirigible

wrecked, lives are lost, whole cities abandoned to sin and vice
because of alcohol! You cannot count the number of good men who
have been lured to doom and destruction by liquor!

METCALF: Like Richard Peabody, for instance?

PEABODY: What! What are you doing with my purse? Give it back
to me, you hooligan! (grabs at purse)

METCALF: I’ll bet you are Richard Peabody’s sister. Well, are you?

PEABODY: (breaks down) You have no right. (MacAllister comforts
her)

METCALF: Well, well, well. This opens a whole new can of worms.

OGLETHORPE: Who is Richard Peabody?

METCALF: It’s before your time, Sonny. “Mad Dog” Peabody was a
vicious killer back in the Twenties. He worked for several big
mobsters in Jersey and Philly, collecting extortion money and
bumping off their enemies. He was a chronic drunkard: I don’t think
he had a sober moment in his life. He was gunned down in Chicago
by his own boss about ten years ago. And here is his sister, still
carrying around a picture of him.

MACALLISTER: Must you be so cruel?

METCALF: It’s my job to get the facts.

OGLETHORPE: Wait a minute, Metcalf! I think you’ve really hit on
something this time. What if she was one of those Carrie Nation
types who attacked saloons with hatchets? She belongs to some
crackpot temperance outfit—and she said she was in South America,
too! What if she’s going around killing bootleggers in revenge for
corrupting her brother?

MACALLISTER: (to Oglethorpe) Please: have you no sense of
decency?

37